A 79-year-old widow from Pontyclun, South , has lost her home worth £200,000 and faced near-bankruptcy following a prolonged and bitter legal dispute with her neighbour over a £300 garden fence. Muriel Middle, a retired beautician, had lived in her mid-terrace home for two decades until her neighbour moved in next door and made , including removing part of the shared fence to access a drainpipe. Middle claimed the drainpipe was on her property and had the fence replaced, triggering a that escalated, the reported.

The case went to Cardiff Civil Justice Centre, where the court partly ruled in the neighbour's favour. Middle could not afford legal representation and was ordered to pay £15,000 of his legal fees, an amount that later rose to £20,000

Unable to pay, she had to transfer the house to her daughter Sam, a firefighter, who secured a mortgage to cover the debt. Despite this, the mother and daughter now plan to sell the house to escape the stressful environment.

Muriel expressed her despair, stating the ordeal had severely impacted her health and that she felt unfairly treated due to her lack of legal and digital literacy. She also said she had tried, unsuccessfully, to obtain a loan or equity release.

Middle told : "I don't think I'm going to last much longer after going through this for the last couple of years. I just feel ill all the time.

"I tried to get a loan and equity release, the only way to do it was to gift the property to my daughter so she could get a mortgage to pay the debt off.

"I feel like I've had no justice whatsoever. It's so far-fetched it's hard to believe.

"This man next door has made my life a living hell, the only thing I did was to replace a portion of the fence, 11 planks of wood, and he took out an injunction against me because it was the wrong colour.

"If you replace wood panels you're not going to get the same colour, the existing ones will always be faded. I couldn't afford legal representation and because I don't know how to use a computer I feel as if I've been discriminated against."